WENATCHEE VALLEY – Wenatchee Valley College announced Tuesday that the school will be implementing cost-saving measures that will include the suspension of several programs and reducing course section offerings going into the 2025-26 year. 

“We want to make sure that we can be the college of choice in North Central Washington,” said Tod Treat, Vice President of Instruction at WVC. “For us to do that, everything we do has to be excellent and we have to have the resources to put into the things that we’re offering to ensure that they’re excellent.”  

These changes to the school have come about as Washington state is facing a budget shortfall of over $12 billion. 

According to the Office of Financial Management, these deficits have arisen as costs to maintain services and programs have risen drastically due to inflation, higher projected caseloads in several safety net programs, expansion of popular programs like early learning, and workforce costs. Revenues have also dipped lower than forecasted due to lagging home sales and collections for sales and capital gains.  

WVC has considered which programs would be suspended based on enrollment, student demand, transfer and employment outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and potential for alternative pathways to serve student needs, WVC said in a press release.  

Working along the Faculty Budget and Program Review Taskforce, WVC administrators have recommended suspensions for the following programs and courses: the Bachelor of Applied Science-Engineering Technology, the Music Direct Transfer Major Related Program, Transitional Studies English Language Learning Level A and B courses, Drama/Theater, Bachelor of Applied Science-Teaching, Machining, Graphic Design and Natural Resources, specifically the Associate of Applied Science-Transfer degree. Wenatchee Valley College will continue to offer a Natural Resources transfer pathway within the general transfer degree. 

A part-time sustainability position that was funded by an expired grant will be reduced unless additional external funds can be identified. This will have the largest impact in the BAS program in teaching, which has around eight students enrolled, with other programs falling into the lower single digits, said Treat. The school is going to try and protect as many faculty members as possible and will move a small number of full-time individuals into other positions. 

Treat said some positions, such as part-time positions funded by an expired federal grant, would not be renewed going into the next year. A counseling position will also be impacted by expiring grant funds at the end of the fiscal year June 30. 

“While we have done everything we can to minimize the impact of program changes on faculty, staff, and students, this is a painful time for our community as these are valued colleagues, friends, mentors, and community members,” Treat said.  

He said the decision to reduce these programs has been evaluated over several years prior to the announcement and will continue to be evaluated over the next few years. Their decision was based on the overall demand by students attending the college and many of these programs didn’t see the growth they were hoping for. 

“The outcomes that we hope to achieve whenever we offer a program is we want the program to meet the interests of students now and we base that on current enrollment, then we look at the persistence of students within that program,” said Treat. “Finally, when they graduate, we want to see that they’re able to place into that workplace or transfer and that their wage will be ideally a living wage or at least a pathway to a living wage.” 

He said that the chances of these programs returning in the future are entirely dependent on whether or not the college begins to see sustained enrollment growth over the next three years. 

WVC Deans and program coordinators are working together to both find alternatives for students to complete their studies or to find programs that have similar interests or pathways that students might already be seeking, said Marcine Miller, Executive Director of Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations. 

“Students in these current programs who are enrolled today will be able to finish their studies,” said Miller. 

Programs such as machining, engineering technology and graphic design are three of the top programs the school hopes to continue offering in some way. The workforce dean, Tracy Donnelly, has had experience building noncredit employer-centered education, which provides great educational opportunities for employers and incumbent workers.  

“It’s an extraordinarily difficult budget time,” said Treat. “We believe in these programs, we wish we could continue to offer them, but we can’t take the limited resources we have, spread them as thinly as we are and still ensure that everything we offer is excellent.” 

WVC will continue to keep the community informed on these decisions in the future. 

“We want to be as transparent and informative as possible, especially if there are students who are interested in some of the programs that would be impacted by these decisions,” said Miller. 

    Vice President of Instruction at Wenatchee Valley College Tod Treat said the current goal for the college is to try and minimize the impact of the recent decisions on both students and faculty.
  

    Programs like Graphic Design will transition to being more noncredit and employer educated to allow students the option to still participate in these classes as well as providing educational opportunities at the workplace.